Keeping in Touch: A Journey into the Past

Just so you don't think I stay in the village all the time, I will tell you about my "out" last week. An "out" is the Holden term for leaving the village for a few days (kind of like a mini vacation.) I went to Seattle to visit my friend, Chris, and some other friends there. We went to a Mariners game one night, ate fish and chips one afternoon, bought a few groceries for me to bring back, read and enjoyed watching the boats go in and out of the Ballard locks. I even got Chris to take a couple laps in the swimming pool at her condo. It was kinda cold, but the water was warmish.

On Saturday, I took a trip up to Bellingham, the town where I lived for nine years back in the "old days." (The "old days" being the formative years from age 4 to age 13, which was more that 54 years ago.) On the trip up from Seattle, Anni, a former long termer at Holden, rode with me as she is getting ready to go back to school at Western Washington University. We exited I-5 at Chuckanut Drive, a beautiful drive of about 15-20 miles ending in Bellingham. This was my first foray into the memorys of my childhood. I remember driving along this road to go to the beach at Larabee State Park where we would have picnics and swim and where, on July 4th, my dad would shoot off fireworks. We would also listen to band concerts at a band shell in the park that I was pleased to see still exists to this day. As I was dropping Anni off at a friend's apartment, I realized it was only two blocks away from the house I used to live in. We drove past it, but couldn't see much as it is really overgrown with bushes, etc. After dropping Anni off, I then met up with Janet, one of my good friends from grade school days, and her friend, Celia, and we took a trip down memory lane. We toured the south side of Bellingham and, believe it or not, I was able to recognize many of the old places from my childhood. As we drove around, more and more memories kept coming back to us and we had a lot of fun remembering those days. We drove by the old house again and could see it better from the side road. It appeared to be in good shape and I wish I could have gone inside, but didn't. We drove past Janet's old house too, which although she lives in the town, she hadn't seen in several years. We drove past the church, the elementary and junior high schools I went to, the library I used to love to visit. We think we even recognized the shop that used to be my mom's baby shop. Although the south side, the Fairhaven area, was really upgraded and has become a touristy area with cute shops and a lot of restaurants, etc., the old buildings are still intact and I was able to pick out places I used to know. It was a really fun day for me and I did take several pictures of these memorable places.